Grant To Aid Study

June 06, 2002|By THUY-DOAN LE; Courant Staff Writer

FARMINGTON — After years of collecting data on student performances, the Farmington school district will now develop a plan to study the data, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Connecticut Center for School Change.

``We have a tremendous amount of data on students in reading, math and writing based on assessments we've developed locally,'' said Ted Lindquist, the district's technology coordinator. ``How can we use the data to better improve student performances? The goal is to develop the correct means for collecting data, making sure we're asking the right questions and using the correct analytical tools to study the data.''

Farmington will use the grant to design a protocol to collect and analyze the data in the classroom on a consistent basis throughout the schools, said Assistant Superintendent Eileen Howley. Most of the data collected by teachers is in handwritten form and the plan would consolidate the information for easier access, she said.

``Farmington has always had a model to continually improve our schools,'' Howley said. ``It's a cyclical and powerful process. We wanted to further that work and we always want to find ways to make it better.''

Lindquist said the data could be used to see how a student or a group of students performed during any given time. If their grades go up or down drastically, teachers can try to understand why it happened or what programs the students were enrolled in. He said teachers would be able to assess whether certain programs help students improve.

``We have thoughtful teachers who know how to look at children's work and who know how to assist children in moving forward,'' Lindquist said. ``We will have a knowledge management team, which is a large group of teachers who know how to look at standards and assessment and know how to help design instructional strategies.''